Here Are the Facts

The Bears are bad. They're awful. They've lost five games this season and in three of them they outplayed their opponent significantly. The other two are the poorest defensive efforts of the last twenty-five years. The Bears make more mistakes than any other team in the league while seemingly lacking in all fundamental areas of the game.

And they're one game out of the wildcard race. Whatever the reason - and there are many - that is a fact. The Chicago Bears are one game out of the wildcard race. They are tied with San Francisco and Carolina at 4-5. They are chasing the Giants, Philadelphia, Green Bay and Atlanta at 5-4.

I'm not making an argument for the Bears making the playoffs. No Bears team has turned me off more than this one. But Atlanta is playing the Giants this week and one of those teams is getting a fifth loss. So if the Bears were to defy what will certainly be long odds and beat Philadelphia at home on Sunday night, they would find themselves right in the thick of the playoff race. (They also have a home game against the Packers left.)

Do I believe the Bears are going to make this happen? No. I won't be able to come up with a single reason the Bears should beat the Eagles. But the NFL stars have aligned and allowed this porous excuse for a ballclub to have a tenth life. The question is will they take advantage? The answer has been "no" for three years.

I'm kind of interested to see what Brandon McGowan does in this game between Colts and Pats. Billichick says he's a good safety, and he won the starting job this year. The Bears let him go in the off-season and the Pats signed him. I haven't seen a Pats game this year, but his stats show 54 tackles, 3 ff, and no picks. Billichick said he's instinctive against the run and pass, and plays with a lot of passion for the game. Let's see what happens tonight.

Posted from last thread so that any Denver lurkers get to read it (again)
Dear Denver fans-
Eat a....well, you already know what I'm going to say so I won't spoil it.
Congratulations on your very OWN 3 game losing streak, you brie-chewing elitist front-runners.

And to Shady from last thread:
Like a wise man once said, "deserve's got nothing to do with it."
I'll take us sneaking into the playoffs, but hell, I'd also take us not getting destroyed by the Eagles next week. I'll also be happy to finish the season with J-Cut not having post-concussive disorder.

da coaching staff would need to say pop and get their head out of there asses and we actually get turnovers not give them up I just don't see it jeff but I still have hope bear down!!! and fuck the queens,packers,panthers!!!!!

Coaches absolutely need to be fired. Devin Hester should be a #3 reciever. JA needs to make a big dent in the Free Agency. Oline needs a major upgrade. oh yea and Cutler needs a true Big #1 reciever. DBacks need improvement.

Jeff I knew you would be posting one of these. It's just thatthe performance of the Bears for the last three years in these same situations has recently made you post with more of an angry less tolerent optimism as opposed to your previous years of upbeat motivational literary master pieces. Maybe the players can start being angry about their lameness too.

I'm just waiting for the first "Let's start Hanie" fool. A "Let's start Hester at RB" post would be more interesting, let's leave that one for a week or two....

On mature reflection of the catastrophe in Candlestick - which I saw twice - some things have survived the initial sting that may bode well for us. The defense looked semi 2005 to me, albeit against a not-great OL(missing their LT whatshisface). We no longer look like a (poor) advert for Cover-2, with some reasonably well played Cover-3 to contain Gore. We even played man-press !! Players wrapped up their tackles. Even Tommie pulled his thumb out of his ass and looked like 2005/2006 Tommie. Vernon Davis calling out the defense had the desired effect it seems. But it was SF at the end of the day, and Philly's line are a lot better. Now is not the time to jump off the Cutler train. Ron Turner's play-calling was even worse than usual (bar a few mid-screens to Forte which were effective due to SF playing deep). Three of those picks weren't on Cutler (2 on Hester in fact) and on another day we win comfortably by a couple of TDs. He put up over 300 yards against one of the better secondaries in the NFL, albeit without Clements and yet again, did so without the support of a run game. This was the GB game all over again. So if we can get Jay on fire in tandem with that defense, beating Philly is not an impossibility with their current defensive problems. We've already shown we have the potential to whip GB and put Rodgers on his ass. Baltimore have looked shaken in recent weeks and not half as scary as they did. That just leaves the Queens ... and here's the kicker. If we can pull off a day of no major mistakes and fifty penalties, we can go into Minny and pants the hillbilly & the Queens (yes we can!), forcing them to come to Chicago to deny us the sweep. Atlanta are down Micahel Turner and just got beat. SF won't beat many and the Giants are in a quandary and Eli Manning is a tool. The wildcard teams we were afraid of no longer look as good as they did. Favre's arm is bound to fall off sooner or later, and the Queens's secondary still sucks. So let's pull the feathers off the Eagles first and then get hard for Minny ....

I'm not going to ride this roller coaster. I love the Bears, and will pull for them every week...have been since the 60's which means I have been through a lot of pain. The rest of this year has to be about getting better. JC learning his recievers and developing some in-game maturity, the Oline learning to work together ( only two holdovers from last year), the D overcoming the loss of their leader and the deterioration of their stud lineman, and the special teams regaining their lustre. If they beat the Eagles, Packers, and everyone else they need to beat to get a wild card berth, then that's fine...but I wouldn't expect anything other than a one and done on the road. If they play well but lose some of those games then that's OK, too. There was no Super Bowl in the cards this year, and the Bears were expected to finish behind the queens and the fudge packers in most of the prognostications. It should be no real surprise that they are in this position other than the way they got here...mostly by shooting themselves in the face. I have an eye toward improvement of the core players on the team, and being ready to contend for the big prize under a new coaching regime in about two years.

We seem to always do well against the Eagles. Come rain, shine or fog. And if they do win Shady ... it's only Baltimore and the BiQueens who would cause us to break sweat. Basically we need to sweep the Vikes. And if we did that and still missed the wildcard - it would still be a worthwhile season for me.

Shon, in the past I actually believed. Hard to not be naive and believe in this club. I'd be impressed if they gave a big effort and won Sunday night. And I'll be into the game, which I didn't think possible after Thursday night.

I think we should all put up $20 and find 1,000,000 Bears fans to do the same to get rid of Lovie, as that is how much it would cost to fire him. All things considered, what has he done for the Bears? Didnt win a superbowl, cant win playoff games, cant bring in the right coordinators, cant discipline players, cant prepare the team properly, cant teach guys on defensive how to line up correctly. Sorry, but just look at all the winning teams in the NFL, their coach sure seems like they know what they are doing or at least know how to correct the problems. If we go 9-7, Lovie will think that is good. No thanks, the Bears should win more than 10+ EVERY year. We are the F'ing Bears, not the Browns.

Irish, how can you say those INT's aren't on Cutler? The first one in the red zone was one of the worst picks I've ever seen. The one to Hester that led to the TD, the DB was waiting to jump that route from the beginning. The other one to Hester, same thing. Granted Hester got bumped off his route by the umpire but it would have been a jump ball at best. The one to your favortie TE Davis, same thing. BTW, how does a 6'7" 275 lb TE get bumped off the route by a DB? The last one he should have run it in. To recap, one was horrible, three were jump balls at best and the last one was desperation when Bennett was open and so was a lane to the end zone. Not good. I'm glad we have Cutler but if he plays like a bonehead he won't get a free pass from me.

I do like your optimism about the rest of the schedule. I don't share it but I like it.

Didn't say they weren't all on Cutler, in fact I was disappointed in Jay for the first time this season. Don't forget the pass interference that wasn't called. First and last should not have been thrown though. Mulligan explains it well on Sun-Times http://www.suntimes.com/sports/football/bears/1886089,CST-SPT-mully16.article

If the last one goes to Davis it's game over and no one is having this conversation. He's man of the match. He's the MVP. I get the feeling Cutler is forcing passes because he knows Turner's play are killing us. Ever see his face sometimes when a play comes in, it's like "WTF?"

My FIRST love was baseball. I wanted to be Luis Aparicio or Nellie Fox. I remember Mayor Richard J. Daley setting off the air raid sirens (yes, children, we used to have regular AIR RAID WARNING tests in those days)the night the White Sox clinched the 1959 A.L. pennant. Sox fans thought it was great. Many other city residents thought WW III had begun and Russian ICBMs were inbound, but well, if they can't take a joke...

I discovered the Bears in late 1963, began following them closely with the arrival of Mssrs. Sayers and Butkus in 1965 and had the pleasure of seeing them play, live, in Wrigley Field on 3 occassions.

I have since slipped from AVID baseball fan to very casual baseball fan, mainly because baseball thinks that "competetive balance" is a dirty phrase and that it is OK for 1 team to purchase as many championships as it can afford and that everybody should be a Yankee fan.

So, I have been an "NFL Guy" for over 2 decades.

At various times during that span, the Chicago Bears have entertained, amazed, surprised, elated, disappointed and appalled me. But make no mistake, no matter how BAD they may STINK in a given week, I usually watch it all and come back for more the following week because I am a Bear fan. I never dumped them for a "flavor of the decade" and became a Cowboy or Steeler or 49 fan tho, lord knows, jumping ship after following the Bears of late 60s and the 70s a certainly would have been ruled "justifiable" in any court.

I am a Bear fan.

My roots are Chicago and I am for the Bears for the long haul.

That said...

Do I think THIS team is capable of turning things around this season?

Frankly, no. I think the glass is half-empty and the guys holding the refill pitcher are dazed and confused.

Am I rooting for them to turn things around?

Hell, yes, and despite what I have sat thru for the last 4 weeks
(hey, even that Cleveland win was UGLY!) I will bewatching again this week, and the next week, and the next until it's time for the big "dirt nap"!

I can't agree more with your observation.
Bears seem to find more ways to lose then win.
I would say it starts at the top and works it's way down to the players.
I still say the ownership of the organization is a problem no matter who coaches
the team. The ship is run like a country club (all about window dressing) instead of a football team.
Winning football games means it's about the game and only the game one by one each week.
You don't talk playoffs till it matters.
You don't make stupid excuses that are repeated each and every season much less each game.
You also begin with a better philosophy than banking on past seasons that in reality weren't that strong in reality.